Harvest will increase road traffic

Sep 24, 2013

AMES — With harvest around the corner, motorists will soon be sharing the road with farm vehicles. The Iowa Department of Transportation is urging motorists and farm vehicle operators to exercise caution during the movement of slow-moving equipment on Iowa’s roadways.

Already in 2013, there have been 79 crashes with farm equipment causing five deaths. Data for 2012 shows a total of 176 crashes involved farm equipment. Those crashes resulted in 12 fatalities, 11 major injuries, 37 minor injuries and 36 other possible injuries.

“For too long we have all accepted that highway fatalities are inevitable,” said Jeremey Vortherms, IDOT state safety engineer. “But if you think about a realistic traffic fatality goal for your family, wouldn’t that goal be zero? If we all work together to buckle up, eliminate distractions and drive alert, we can drastically reduce the number of fatalities on the road and work to achieve a goal of zero fatalities.”